Tagg: Nicaragua

You may notice that my updates are not as frequent as those of other students and there is an explanation to that.

Internet.

Where I live there is no internet. If i go by bike 10-15 minutes to one of the restaurants by the beach there may be internet, but bring your pacience and be ready to change your plans of the day. I knew this before coming here to do my study and I was prepared for it…yet to make a thesis internet seems a bit crucial in order to find all the info, articles and everything.

Another alternative is to go by bus into the closest town, León. Door to door the trip takes about an hour and that is not a problem. But when planning and doing an interview study the plans changes quikely. The partiipants don´t show up and you scheduele for the next day, so OK I don´t go to town…folloing day they cancel again and it is to late to go to town and so on…

But as I have written before, it is all worth it! I just hope that Malmö University understand why I haven´t updated so frequently as they have wanted..sorry Malmö University!

So my study is coming to an end…all the interviews are done, still waiting for some emails from some organisations but in total the field study is done. Now it is “only” the writing part that is missing. I decided when I got the MFS scholarship that I would hand in my thesis in August instead of in May, since I had no idea how the study would go down here. The minimum stay is 8 weeks and that is pretty fair if everything goes as planned, i not it is nice to have 1-2 weeks extra like I have had. I also don´t know if we are supposed to write the thesis completely during this time aswell, that might be. But I have not had the time to finish mine so I am happy that I have until August to finish it.

In total if you have the energy and interst do a minor field study, apply! Do it! You learn so much from it! Of course it depends on what you want ot learn and do, but either way you will come out of it with an experience that the majority of your classmates does not have.

I don´t think this will be my last update, since I want to share some of my findings with you as well. So hold tight they will come!

My thesis treats the subject of abortion and I will boldly say that abortion is a hot subject non-dependent on where you go in the world (even in Sweden), because my experience is that close to everyone hold their personal opinion about it. If it should be restricted or not, how it should be, why it is good or bad, who should decide and so on. Women from the Northern Europe, like me myself, have had access to abortion roughly said the last 50 years give or take and may be it is seen as obvious for us. It is absolutely not like that in the rest of the world as you may already know. And to sit down and talk to someone about something that is obvious and a matter of course for me but not even slightest to that person, that is a very special experience and many it times it is hard to hear about. Something that is important to think about is that this is their reality and who am I to say that “No, that is not how it is. You should think like this.” That is just patronizing and colonial thoughts all over again. This society is so different from ours and the history as well, so of course there is another way of thinking, arguing and coping with situations as well. But for me as a woman hearing thoughts and opinions against women held by other women is something rather hard.

But you surely learn from it, so much! Doing this study has been such a unique experience that it is hard to explain. I have learned new things every day, it has been overwhelming a lot of the time, I have met wonderful people and it is just wow! Without a doubt this experience have developed me as a person, student and a woman. It is hard work that is for sure, a field study is not the easy way of doing a thesis, but so worth it!

Before visiting a new country I believe that many of you look up the safety in the country first, am I right? Nicaragua is the poorest country in its region yet it has the lowest crime rate in Central America. Their neighbours Honduras and El Salvador are considered rather dangerous to be travelling in but Nicaragua stays relatively safe. During the time (2years in total) that I have spent here I have to agree, it is rather safe here. Of course I have heard stories about the pandillas (gangs) in Managua the capital and also the Barrios of other cities, but nothing worse than what you hear in Sweden.

But there is something very different with Nicaragua…the Nature. I have lived, studied and worked here during 2 years now, with a break for studies in Malmö for my thesis. Under these 2 years I have experienced following;

5-10 Volcano eruptions

1 bigger Earthquake and a few smaller shakes

1 Sandstorm

2 Floodings due to rising sea levels

1 Drought

2 Evacuations due to Tsunami warning

Uncountable thunderstorms shaking your core and making you deaf and heavy rains

What is missing so far is a hurricane, an actual Tsunami, forest fire and hmm I think that is it.

BUT what is important to say is that even if all this have occurred they have not been too serious. Or for you as a tourist at least. It surely have affected the people here in many ways. Floodings and sandstorms destroyed many homes in poorly constructed areas putting already poor families in even harsher conditions. The drought that has been going on since last year have let many farmers without crops, villages without water and the food prices have risen significally. The drought is due to El Niño a weather phenomena that is supposed to happen every 7-8 eight years but have passed by more and more frequently. Quikely explained is that the biggest ocean currents change directions and so does the winds. So where it is supposed to rain like here in Nicaragua from May-Dec it doesn´t or far from sufficient and where it is supposed to be drought like central Africa and India it rains heavely. Since here it is Winter (rain) May-Dec and summer Dec-April(HOT) this means 1,5 years without good rain, you can imagine yourself what harm that can do.

Nicaragua is a country full of power of the earth and it keeps surprising you with its powers! Sure it can make you a bit scared sometimes but woow it is truly incredible to experience! And I don´t want to scare you of with this ok? There are many months that can pass without anything happening as well and as I said as a tourist visiting it is safe and totally once in a life time experience!

P.S. Everything is good in the hood so far, don´t be worried! Everything is wonderful here! D.S.

Fans are something that is crucial here to get a good night sleep, be able to stay inside instead of the burning sun and to be able to somehow function during the day. The power grid in Nicaragua is not working that well. The power comes and goes as it pleases without any concern of the consumers of course. For me it is still a mystery what is really happening when the power goes out…the few times it does happen in Sweden it is because of Gudrun or Björn or I don´t know all those storms. But here it does it without storms just like that *poof* without any warning. Is it like some say here that the electricity went to another part of the country for a while? Or maybe there just isn´t any electricity left? Is there a big party somewhere and are stealing all the power? Did someone shut it down to save some for a warmer day? Or is it simply that they are working somewhere to improve the grid and they shut it down so that they won´t die? Who knows?!

2 weeks ago our street was left without electricity for not just one hour or two, no but for 3 days and 3 nights. It left most of the families without sleep, myself included…Sleeping in 40 degrees heat is not easy! There were many nightly showers and a lot of community complaining about the heat. I live in a very poor neighborhood and to skip work to go in to town to talk to the electric company is not really an option. So I and a Nicarguan friend went to the office 2 days in a row trying to sort it out. They thought we were lying, our response was simply why should we be lying about not having power that is just ridicoulus…and they did agree with us that it would. The problem was actually just that they accidentally had cut the wrong cable leaving only our street without power. But things have their own pace here and after 3 days thye came to fix it and you could hear a shout of joy from the neighbours *Ya regreso la luz!* I think I speak for everyone that the first night with a fan again was one of the best sleeps ever.

This week have been interview week and 3 have been done so far. And I can tell you that it is so much fun, it is hard to keep the interviews shorter than 1 hour! My interviews are not straight/up interviews with prepared questions it is more like thematic discussions. This means that we are having a conversation/discussion about some themes that I have prepared and the interviewee is the one doing the most talking. I thought and I have also been warned from people at home and here that abortion is a really stigmatized subject and that it will be hard to get the information that I am looking for. I have also considered this and I was a bit nervous during the first discussion, but it went really good and it was no problem to bring it up after about 30 min of discussion of other relating factors. But something that is hard to handle are some opinions that I myself don´t agree with. Trying to stay in the role of information gatherer and not someone who came here to give information and lecture about abortion and reproductive rights. So I am working on how to stay calm and proceed with question on why it is like that and so on.

I still have to do at least 2-3 discussions more so the following days I am going out to look for some more persons who would be willing to participate in the research. I have already asked the other participants if they know anyone but I haven´t got an answer there yet. Someone that would be so interesting to interview is the teacher here at the school who is teaching the sex-ed course since 15 years back. I think that she will have some really valuable information, so I am going to try to get in contact with her.

When transcribing the interviews I learn a lot on what I have to do a little bit different the next time or I find a question that I really have to ask the next person, it is a process and I am learning along the way. So the following days will be transcribing and just collect and organize the material that I have right now.

Nicaragua is as hot as it can be and I am longing for the rainy season to start soon!